Is Shakespeare legit?

The other day I heard my friend describe Shakespeare as an "old dead English dude". I suppose he is correct in some aspects, but why does Shakespeare still exist in our society? If he was just some old dead dude, why are his plays still being produced and, more importantly, why does every school in the freaking world require Shakespeare for reading? I figured he must be more than some old dead dude, and at the very least he must be an old dead dude who could write. At the moment we are reading Hamlet in class, so I figured I might as well explore this idea while doing an assignment.

When I was reading Hamlet I noticed one thing at once. Shakespeare's play is incredibly detailed. Puns and references are scattered everywhere through the play. Also his writing seems incredibly poetic. At first I didn't pick up on it, but after reading the "to be...or not to be" speech in my best imitation of a dude who wants to kill his uncle but can't because he has the hots for his mom who is married to his uncle who killed his dad whose ghost came and told me to kill his brother voice. A most confusing voice indeed, but that's not the point. The point is that Shakespeare is a damned good writer. If he was in a rock band, he would probably play some epic music like Symphony X, Pink Floyd, or Coheed and Cambria. His words are not just snazzy words, but are meant to be heard echoing outward from a stage. The phrasing is amazing, quite confusing, and convoluting, yet it certainly isn't air polluting.

So if this is so, why are we taught in school to hate Shakespeare? Well not exactly taught, but pushed to view him as some sort of writing god. Since the readers are usually parochial minded teenagers or young adults, this is almost equivalent to teaching one to hate. From a teenage perspective Shakespeare just seems like some old dead dude who wrote a bunch of funny words. It's kind of sad really. Especially when prisoners (my English teacher made us listen to This American Life on a report about prison Hamlet productions) can relate more to Shakespeare's writing than most of the brightest high school students. Personally I think this is because as teenagers, we feel we cannot relate to a dude whose dad gets killed by his uncle who married his mom who he has the hots for. But if this character is really that hard to relate to why is he one of the most memorable characters in the history of the world.

I figure that it's because Hamlet is everybody. Not literally of course, but Hamlet's life is basically so messed up anyone can relate to him. I know that people who are like dude Hamlet is "lols", but it’s really not. Hamlet is basically a story of a dude whose life goes from super awesome straight downward. We should be able to identify with this because everyone has their ups and downs in life. We are told Hamlet's life from the deepest, darkest point of his life. Why do you think Shakespeare put it at this point of time in the young lad's life? It's because if he places the play in the time when it was all good in the hood, we would be more pissed off about reading the play because we would just have to read about how Hamlet and Ophelia want to make babies and how the King and his wife are all lovey dovey. Who would want to read about some rich dude and his awesome life? (but then again most people do listen to rap music nowadays...) Human beings like excitement and death. We don't admit it, but the fact that someone's life sucks more than ours makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It's not that human beings are cold hearted emotionless slaughterers (though this could be debated), but that we don't usually like seeing someone brag about how awesome everything is and flaunt it in front of our faces. Maybe it has to do with survival instincts, or just the fact that we always want what we can't have. I have no idea, but the point is that: dude, Hamlet is one unlucky SOB.

Though his life basically sucks by the time we enter it, Hamlet is an amazing character. He is the character that anyone can project their own problems on. I know I already mentioned how we essentially enjoy watching people suffer, but part of Hamlet's appeal lies also in the situations he is put in. Because of this Hamlet really embodies the reader, the reader who has their own problems and experiences. Maybe Hamlet you when your girlfriend cheated on you and you had crazy plots to sabotage her new relationship. Or Hamlet can be you when a loved one died and you feel all alone. Hamlet can be every man. He can be the punk rocker who is fighting the system, the employee who got screwed over at work, the guy whose girl is taken, etc.

This is the magic of Shakespeare's plays. He is able to cover broad themes, yet create characters we can relate to. His characters are incredibly complex, yet are accessible for those who try. Not bad for an old dead English dude.